According to the official Xinhua news agency, the Chinese National Tourism Administration will lower the registered capital requirements for foreign travel agencies as of July 1.
Moving away from protectionism
With the introduction of new regulations, including the scraping of restrictions on foreign travel agencies setting up branches in the country, the Chinese tourist authorities hope to attract foreign brand-name travel agencies, as well as encouraging domestic travel agencies to expand abroad.
These are just some of the commitments that China promised to honour on joining the World Trade Organisation in 2001.
China, an emerging market
Last year, the Chinese went on 34 million trips abroad, which was more than any other Asian country. On the other hand, the country received 124 million visitors in 2006, generating 33.5 thousand million dollars in revenues.
